Schaaf Wood Carving Tools: FirstLook

Wood, steel, and diamonds!

Posted on October 27, 2024 by Carolyn Donovan and Wan Chi Lau in RainyDayProjects // 0 Comments

During our summer vacation we completed a project we began quite a while back: we decorated the post we made for our mat cutting practice by carving a dragon pattern into it. It was our first carving effort and we were hooked!

The experience made us want to learn a lot more about—and get much better at—carving. A few readers had pointed us to Schaaf Tools’ free e-Book on carving. We took a look, liked what we read, and decided to check out what they offer for the beginner wood carver.

Schaaf Tools

Our goodie-bag from Schaaf consisted of:

Chisels

This set of 12 essential wood carving tools is designed for all levels of wood carvers: beginners to get started, intermediate carvers to add to their collection, and pros to have a backup set or a set with the bevels ground at a different angle.

The set came with its own heavy-duty canvas roll for the 12 tools. The inside flaps secure the chisels and gouges and protect them from each other.

The set consists of:

#1 Straight Chisel 8mm
#1 Skew Chisel 8mm
#5 Gouge 8mm
#5 Gouge 20mm
#7 Gouge 6mm
#7 Gouge 14mm
#7 Heavy Bent Gouge 20mm
#8 Gouge 4mm
#8 Spoon Gouge 10mm
#9 Gouge 10mm
#11 Veiner 3mm
#12 V Parting Tool 6mm

Details

Each Schaaf tool is made from chrome vanadium steel and hardened to Rockwell C60. The metal should hold an edge for a long time even with repeated use.

The 14cm long hardwood ash European-style octagonal handles keeps the tools from rolling off the workbench: a clever – and safe- design indeed!

Even though these tools come factory ground and sharpened, they will perform better if “finished” by the user BEFORE their FirstUse. The factory set the bevel at what it considers the most useful angle for most carvers: 23º.

While the edges absolutely look sharp, and it is certainly possible to start using these factory-sharpened tool immediately, the edges will cut even better with a bit of “finish.”

Schaaf has lots of tips and clips that guide users on how to tune their tools so that even beginners can get optimal performance from them. We will, of course, have a complete write-up of the sharpening steps and experience!

Other Tools

While a foundational set of good chisels is obviously key to learning about and enjoying the process of carving wood, other accessories can help enhance the hobby. When we did a bit more research, we found that many wood carvers recommended also getting a good sharpening system and a carving mallet.

Diamond stone

Schaaf’s 400/1000 grit diamond stone is both rough enough to fix a nicked edge or rounded bevel and fine enough to tune the bevel and edge. Diamond stone stays flat for its entire life, sharpens faster than other types of stone, and is easier to maintain. The adjustable non-skid universal base is compatible with other sharpening blocks and has three rubber stops that keep it from moving when being used.

Carving Mallet

The Scraaf carving mallet has a comfortable hardwood handle with a urethane wrapped barrel head that is designed to transfer the power of the strike into the carving tool. The urethane head will also minimize noise and strike damage to the end of the wooden handles.

The advantage of a barrel head is that you can just pick it up and start striking. There is no need “orient” the head as with a normal hammer!

FirstThoughts

We are excited to give these Schaff tools a FirstUse. We’ll also be doing a write-up on sharpening the chisels with the 400/1000 diamond stone. Look for them sometime over the course of the winter.